This is the day of the week and time of day when you're most productive

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Lynsey Barber

I'm City A.M.'s award-winning technology editor, covering everything from happenings at Apple and Google to the latest London startup.

In particular fintech, blockchain, artifical intelligence, driverless cars, virtual reality and the sharing economy get me out of bed in the morning.

I'm always trying to illustrate stories with pictures of dogs. Sometimes with some success.

I was named technology journalist of the year at the UK Tech Awards.

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Lynsey Barber

You might need a coffee to keep going on the most productive day of the week

Who doesn't experience a touch of the Sunday night blues as the weekend draws to a close and thoughts of the new working week start creeping into your mind?

Once Monday rolls around though, it's the most productive day of the week for the majority of us.

Perhaps we're well rested and ready to take on the week's tasks with renewed vigour, but more than a quarter of us say that Mondays are the day of the week when we get the most done.

That feeling steadily declines over the week, according to a research report by Red Letter Days for Busines which surveyed more than 2,000 workers in the UK, although, it turns out Thursday is the least productive day of the working week.

Just over a fifth said Tuesday was when they hit their stride, followed by 18 per cent who said Wednesday, 10 per cent Thursday and 15 per cent Friday, while a further 10 per cent said that working over the weekend was their most productive time.

The study also asked at what time of day people felt they worked most productively, and for the majority, that was first thing in the morning.

You may hate Monday mornings, but they may just be your most productive part of the week.

For those who identified times and days outside traditional working, it suggests that businesses could be missing out on making the most of some of its workers, claims Red Letter Day for Business chief Bill Alexander.

“Working nine to five is a bad idea. The results show that by not being too rigid about conventional Monday to Friday, nine to five working hours, employers could improve productivity among their workforces,” he said.

The research also found that more engaged staff spent more time doing things such as checking social media, chatting to colleagues or even shopping online.

Regular breaks, flexibility and freedom over managing their own time was the key to their greater productivity, said Alexander.

"The research shows that despite these employees spending more time on personal tasks, when they sit down to do their job they are focused and have a better output – over three fifths of this group (68 per cent) will also work overtime every single day, compared to half (46 per cent) of low engaged employees who said they don’t work any overtime.”